Eating Locally in the Pacific Northwest

Tomato Sauce Fiasco

Surely among the top ten slow foods, tomato sauce. The reward for preserving them in late summer will be the essence of luscious vine-ripened garden tomatoes mid-winter in a soup or marinara sauce, with an onion and sausage frittata or mushroom polenta. I’m a fool for tomatoes and should make myself a tomato cape, something to wear everywhere to signify my devotion. It can get ridiculous and I just pushed the bar a little far the other day. Home-cookin’ tomato-preservin’ smarty-pants.

Since our own backyard tomatoes are behind schedule I thought it would be a good idea to buy ’seconds’ from Billy and make a batch of sauce now and then again later this month when ours will finally, I hope, come on like gangbusters. (Actually, there’s a big ‘if’ in that hope.) Bob tracked down Billy at the Sunday Market and purchased a big box of seconds, 22# @ $2.25 per pound. Total $49.50. When I heard that I knew this handmade sauce would also cost an arm and a leg. A pot full of tomatoes may look like a huge amount, but if you’re making sauce they reduce in quantity. A lot.

We ended up with barely four quarts. Yeah, you’re way ahead of me I know, that’s about $12.50 per quart. That’s a highfalutin’ tomato sauce. It took all afternoon – the Slow Food thing, no problem. I’m a happy camper when something’s brewing in the kitchen.

Lesson learned. From now on I use my own from the backyard, or pull off a midnight tomato caper somewhere. I’m chagrined about the cost, but the good news is that the sauce is amazing. Rich and tomatoey, it will be delectable mid-winter. If you can somehow find tomatoes for a song, or don’t mind the pricey version, you might want to make and preserve sauce of your own.

Here’s one way to do it:

You’ll need two cooking pots and two bowls, big ones.

Bring a pot of water to a boil.

In the kitchen sink, fill a bowl with ice water.

Peel and slice one or two heads of garlic. In another cooking pot, sauté the garlic in olive oil for half a minute, turn heat off and let sit. You’ll put peeled and quartered tomatoes into this pot a little later so make it a big one. Not necessary to quarter the tomatoes - skip this if you prefer. They’ll soften and fall apart anyway.

Blanch 8 or 10 tomatoes at a time in the pot of simmering water – leave them for one or two minutes until skins begin to loosen.

Remove them with a large slotted spoon/spatula and place directly into the pan of ice water.

Put more tomatoes into pot and while they’re blanching pull the skins off the others.

Large tomatoes sometimes have a hard core – remove that.

Place peeled and quartered tomatoes into the sauce pot with the cooked garlic, turn on the heat and begin to cook. Add other tomatoes as soon as they’re peeled.

Tomatoes will reduce in quantity as they cook so add salt to taste later on.

Smash tomatoes from time to time or use an immersion blender; you could also use a food processor after they’ve cooled, but watch out. Too much blending reduces texture and diminishes bright color. I prefer to use a potato masher or immersion blender which I purchased last year and love.

Stirring occasionally, allow tomatoes to simmer for several hours until they’ve reduced and thickened. If I’d stopped mine an hour sooner I’d have at least another quart – this year I cooked the sauce longer which resulted in diminished quantity, but increased flavor. Many uses for a thinner ‘sauce’ so feel free to stop sooner, as I often have. The thinner version is equally fine and fresh tasting. The bottom line is to make the sauce of a consistency that will serve your own culinary purposes later on.

Salt to taste near end of cooking time.

I let the sauce cool and then pour into quart-size freezer containers. Store in the freezer, until say November if you can wait that long, and have yourself a taste of summer.

Or, you can process in glass jars, which I’ll do with my next batch. Their presence in the pantry is comforting, so red and regal, ready to add culinary distinction to whatever recipe needs a tomato.

You may have noticed that I have a thing for these guys.

Posted under: Eat Local, Farmers Markets, In The Garden, On the Local Table, Pantry, Produce